How do I collect an unpaid broker invoice?

Chapter 01

What do I do first when a broker is not paying?

First, find out why. A broker not paying on time is not always a broker in trouble. Call the broker’s accounts payable team and ask what is holding up the payment. Often the answer is paperwork: a bill of lading without a signature, a missing proof of delivery, or a receipt the rate confirmation asked for. Fix that at once, and send it in a way you can prove. Then build a file on the debt. Keep the rate confirmation, the signed papers, the invoice, and a note of every email and call. That file carries you through every later step, from the demand letter to the bond claim and the court.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run three trucks. On Thursday, July 9, 2026, one of them delivers a dry van load from Dallas to Atlanta. The rate confirmation says $3,200, paid 30 days after the broker gets your invoice and papers. The next day, Friday, July 10, you email the invoice. You attach the rate confirmation, the bill of lading signed at delivery, and the proof of delivery. We made up these numbers for the story.

August 9 comes and goes with no money. On Monday, August 24, 45 days after your invoice, you call. The clerk in accounts payable says the signed bill of lading never arrived. You know you sent it. Do not argue. Send it again the same day, from the same email address, and ask for written confirmation that it arrived. Then write down the call: the date, the time, the name of the person and what they said.

While you wait, read the rate confirmation again. It usually says which papers the broker needs, where to send them and when it pays. Some brokers want the original papers by mail. Some want a lumper receipt, the receipt for the workers paid to unload at the dock. If a paper is truly missing, get it from your driver or from the receiver. If the broker paid less than the invoice amount, ask in writing what it deducted and why.

Keep everything for this load in one folder. Put in the rate confirmation, the signed bill of lading, the proof of delivery, your invoice and the email that sent it. Add every reply from the broker and your notes on each call. For most loads, you will not need these records to pursue payment. But if a dispute arises, you will need them when you file a claim. By then, the broker may have stopped answering.

One question before you go further: did you sell this invoice to a factoring company? If you did, who chases the broker depends on your factoring agreement. Read it before you send anything else.

Now Tuesday, September 8 arrives. It is 60 days since your invoice. There is still no money, and the broker’s phone goes to voicemail. The paperwork is fixed, so the problem is no longer paperwork. It is time to put your demand in writing.

Chapter 02

How do I demand payment and check the broker?

Send a written demand for payment, attach your file, and give a clear date to pay by. In the same letter, ask for the broker’s record of your load. Federal rules make every broker keep one, and “each party to a brokered transaction has the right to review” it (the rule on broker records). The same day, look the broker up in FMCSA’s public records. Check that its authority is still active, and write down who issued its bond. You will need that name for the claim.

On September 8 you email the letter, and you send the same letter by certified mail so you can prove it arrived. It can be short:

We delivered your load on July 9, 2026 under your rate confirmation for $3,200. We invoiced you on July 10 and sent the signed bill of lading again on August 24. Copies are attached. Please pay the invoice in full by Friday, September 18, 2026. Please also send us your record of this transaction, which we have the right to review. If we are not paid by that date, we will file a claim on your bond.

This record may tell you more than you expect. The rule lists what goes in it (the rule on broker records). It shows the bill of lading number, what the broker was paid and who paid it. It also shows the freight charges the broker collected and the date it paid the carrier. So if the shipper has already paid the broker, the record should say so. Brokers must keep these records for 3 years.

There is a catch. FMCSA itself has said that brokers often put a clause in their contracts that makes the carrier give up this right (FMCSA’s 2024 proposal). So check the agreement you signed with this broker. In that same November 2024 proposal, FMCSA proposed that brokers must send the record within 48 hours of a request. It reopened comments in February 2025 (the reopening notice). As of September 22, 2026, we found no final rule. Guides that say a broker must answer in 48 hours are describing a proposal, not the law.

Next, look the broker up on FMCSA’s Licensing and Insurance site. FMCSA’s public data shows what these records hold (FMCSA’s insurance data). A broker’s filing is either a surety bond on form BMC-84 or a trust fund on form BMC-85. The record names the company that issued it, the bond number and the date it took effect. A second list keeps old bonds and the dates they were cancelled (FMCSA’s insurance history data). FMCSA’s site blocks our tools, so we could not see its screens. It opens in a normal browser.

A surety bond is a promise. The bond company, called the surety, promises to pay carriers if the broker does not. A trust fund is money held by a bank or another financial institution for the same purpose (the rule on broker bonds). Either way, the amount is $75,000. It stays the same however many offices or agents the broker has (the federal law on broker bonds).

Say your broker’s authority is still active, and its filing is a BMC-84 bond from a surety company. You write down the surety’s name and the bond number. Friday, September 18 passes with no payment and no record.

Checking a broker before you take its load is a different job, covered in how to check a broker before taking a load. And if the company that booked your load may not have been the real broker, read how to spot double brokering before you file anything.

Chapter 03

How do I file a broker bond claim?

Send a written claim to the surety or trust fund named on the broker’s FMCSA record. Attach your whole file and state the amount owed. Federal law says the surety must answer within 30 days. If it says no, it must give its reasons in writing (the federal law on broker bonds). The bond pays in three cases. The broker agrees to the payment. Or the broker does not answer and the surety decides the claim is valid. Or the claim is not settled in a reasonable time, and you win a court judgment against the broker.

Most owners call this a broker bond claim. The rules we read do not set a form for it. So call the surety, give the bond number, and ask how it wants to receive claims. Then send yours in writing, so the date it arrived can be proved. You email your claim on Monday, September 21, and the surety gets it that day. So it must answer by Wednesday, October 21.

How does the surety decide? The rule gives the broker 7 business days to answer about the claim (the rule on broker bonds). Say the surety writes to the broker on Tuesday, September 22. Seven business days later is Thursday, October 1. If the broker stays silent and the surety finds your claim valid, the surety can pay it. If the broker answers and disputes it, look at the three cases again. The broker has not agreed and has not stayed silent. What is left is the third case, a court judgment against the broker. So a bond claim is not a promise of money. The file you built is what makes it strong.

The new rules set additional deadlines. They took effect on January 16, 2026 (the rule on broker bonds). A surety must tell FMCSA within 2 business days when a payment drops the bond below $75,000. It must also tell FMCSA when it decides that a broker is failing and that claims will take the bond below $75,000. FMCSA then writes to the broker. The broker has 7 business days to show the report was a mistake, to restore the bond, or to pay the claims some other way. If it does none of these, FMCSA suspends its authority.

Say that is what happens to your broker. Claims from other carriers pile up. On Tuesday, October 6, the surety decides the broker is failing and the claims will take the bond below $75,000. It tells FMCSA by Thursday, October 8. The broker does not fix it within its 7 business days. Its authority is suspended, and the surety starts to cancel the bond.

Now comes the most important deadline on this page. When a surety cancels a bond because the broker failed, FMCSA posts a notice in the FMCSA Register. That is a daily list on FMCSA’s website of decisions and notices about operating authority (FMCSA’s 2023 rules). The surety must then accept claims for 60 calendar days after the notice (the rule on broker bonds). If the last day falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, the window runs to the next business day.

Say the notice appears on Monday, October 26. Sixty days later is Friday, December 25, which is Christmas. So the window closes on Monday, December 28. Within 30 days after the window closes, the surety must pay every claim nobody disputes. If those claims add up to more than the bond, each carrier gets a share (the federal law on broker bonds). The same law says the surety cannot take its lawyers’ fees or its costs out of the bond.

Here is the trap. Your claim went in on September 21, before the notice. The rules we read do not say how a claim sent before the notice is counted. So when the notice appears, send your claim again, or get the surety to confirm in writing that it counts. Now think of another carrier that the same broker did not pay. That owner waited, and sends a claim on January 8, 2027. The law tells the surety to pay the claims it received during the window. A claim that arrives after it can get nothing.

And the share can be small. Say the claims come to $300,000 against the $75,000 bond. Each carrier then gets a quarter of its claim: about $800 of your $3,200. These numbers are made up too. You cannot see in advance how many claims already sit on a bond. FMCSA has said that sureties do not have to list pending claims on their websites (FMCSA’s 2023 rules). A broker that files for bankruptcy falls outside these suspension rules. A bankruptcy filing alone does not count as financial failure (the rule on broker bonds). If your broker files, talk to an attorney.

Chapter 04

What if the bond does not pay, and how long can I wait?

If the surety says no, or pays only part, the next step is court. Federal law says a carrier must sue to recover its freight charges within 18 months after the claim arises. For a load, the claim arises on the day of delivery (the law on deadlines to sue). Small claims court can be enough for one invoice. For a larger debt, an attorney or a collection agency can take it on. A court judgment can also provide a basis for payment under the bond, because the law allows payment on a claim supported by a judgment against the broker.

For your load, the 18 months run from July 9, 2026, so they end in January 2028. Do not wait until that deadline is close. A broker that stops paying often stops answering, and a judgment is worth only what can be collected. Read your agreement with the broker too, because it may set its own deadlines for claims. If a deadline is close, ask an attorney which one applies to you.

For one invoice, small claims court can be the least expensive option. Each State sets its own limit and its own rules, so check your State court’s website before you file. An attorney who handles freight cases can sue the broker. The attorney can also sue the surety if it turned down a valid claim. In a lawsuit against a surety over a bond claim, the winner gets its reasonable costs and attorney fees (the federal law on broker bonds). That cuts both ways. If you lose, you may pay the surety’s. A collection agency usually takes a share of what it collects, so get its fee in writing first. And if your invoice was factored, the factoring agreement again decides who does what.

What has changed? The suspension rules and the window of 60 days took effect on January 16, 2026. FMCSA first set them for January 2025, then moved the date to January 16, 2026 (the rule that moved the date). FMCSA said the new rules should cut the time a failing broker can keep piling up unpaid claims (FMCSA’s 2023 rules). A guide written before 2026 may not mention these deadlines, or may still give the old date. Check the date on anything you read.

There is also what we could not check. FMCSA’s website blocks our tools, so we could not read its own overview of these rules. We also found no published rule on how a surety weighs a broker’s answer to a claim, or on what a claim must look like. So start with the paperwork, put your demand in writing, and look up the bond on the same day. Then watch the calendar, because each step has its own deadline.

If you want someone to prepare your invoices, track every payment and follow up on each overdue one, here is what we offer.